Taking the social media world by storm, the hot, new social platform to join is Pinterest. Rivaling Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr, Pinterest users are attracted to the site because its based off self-expression and visual appeal. Users are able to discover new things (photos and videos) and then share the content with others.

Surprisingly, Pinterest was created over two years ago, but suddenly gained momentum and was named one of the top ten social networks in December. With the number of users rising, this social site must be examined for its ability to be utilized by marketers and brands everywhere.

How it works

According to the website, “Pinterest lets you organize and share the beautiful things on the web.” Essentially, the site is a digital bulletin board where users can share their tastes and interests with others. Before we go any further, here is some essential Pinterest vocabulary everyone ought to know:

Pin: A pin is an image added to Pinterest. You can add images from another website or upload your own personal images. Every pin links back to the site it came from.
Board: A Board is a collection of pins. Each user can have multiple boards, with each pertaining to a certain topic. Examples include Recipes for Dinner, Wish list, Travel Destinations, etc. The amount of pins you can add to a board is unlimited.
Repin: When you come across an image you like while browsing Pinterest, you can add that to your own board (also known as repinning). Not only will the original user who pinned the image be recognized, but also the repin will always contain the source-link of the image.
Pinners: Pinterest users.

How brands are doing it right

Pinterest is making an impact in social media because it of its highly visual and aesthetic nature. Users are inspired by the beautiful photos they find and so they share it with others. Therefore, brands must realize that they are joining this social site to better their consumer relationships, not increase revenue. If you regard this social platform as a ROI opportunity, you’re assuming the wrong position. Instead, allow your brand to showcase its personality and core values. You want users to feel like they’re getting a behind the scenes insight into your brand. By putting a face to your brand, the personality will shine through. Here are some of our favorite brands on Pinterest:

http://pinterest.com/realsimple/

http://pinterest.com/todayshow/

http://pinterest.com/bhg/welcome-home/

http://pinterest.com/nordstrom/

http://pinterest.com/wholefoods/

http://pinterest.com/travelchannel/

Did you notice that the brands weren’t trying to push their products on users? Pin etiquette declares that Pinterest should not be a space for self-promotion. Instead, use this platform to share more about your brand. Always remember to stick to the 70/30 rule. Only 30% of your content should be brand content and the other 70% should be a reflection of your brand’s personality and inspiration. Keeping this rule and the above tips in mind, every brand has the opportunity to build a community and following on Pinterest.

Why Pinterest should be in a marketer’s toolbox

Most marketers cringe at the thought of another social media platform. Just when they were starting to get in the rhythm of mastering social platforms, another social medium emerges. Now, marketers must scramble to identify how they’re going to incorporate this site into their marketing plans. Take a deep breath and relax, because this site is already working in your favor. While Pinterest tends to benefit specific industries such as home décor, weddings, fashion, food, travel, entertainment, etc. this shouldn’t stop your brand from finding a creative way to make a presence. Utilizing Pinterest as a marketing tool is still a relatively new idea, so you can push boundaries to achieve success. Just remember the fundamental idea: Pinterest allows your brand to share content with others and connect with consumers on a personal level. Take this unique opportunity to infuse your brand’s personality into your Pinterest boards. By doing so, you’ll tackle the very premise of social media: sharing content with others and building a community.

Before we divulge into what your company can do to master social customer relationship management (social CRM), let’s examine a few brand blunders and how they should have improved their strategy.

Memorable brand blunders:

-Netflix. The streaming movie and red envelope company decided that there would be a change/split in services and pricing for Netflix subscribers. With little to no preparation and very minimal explanation, customers became enraged and turned to social media to express their frustration. Then, to make matters worse, there was the incident with their partner, Qwikster, and their tweets. [To read a full synopsis, click here]. Netflix did a horrible job communicating with their customers throughout all the changes. The worst part is that Netflix was the one who was initiating all the changes. They should have prepared customers better and stood up to the social media backlash.

-Bank of America: The popular banking company announced a change that would require customers to pay $5 per month to use their debit cards. According to the Washington Post, “more than 300,000 people signed an online petition to stop the planned fee. More than 21,000 people pledged to close their Bank of America checking accounts.” It was blantantly apparent to Bank of America that their customers did not agree with this change. In the end, Bank of America reversed its decision to charge the fee. However, this decision was a result of customers expressing their anger across social media sites.

-Susan G. Komen: Last week, the breast cancer foundation made headlines when news broke that the organization would be cutting its funding to Planned Parenthood. Surprisingly, the announcement was not made by the foundation, and it took a whole two days for Komen to respond to the negative feedback. The funding cuts sparked a social media backlash, all while Komen remained silent and allegedly deleted negative Facebok posts. While the foundation stayed quiet, Planned Parenthood stood up and made public statements, appeared on broadcasts and received more than $400,000 in 24 hours (most from private donors). This blunder clearly outlines what you should never do. Although Komen’s decision was reversed, fans were outraged and questioned the organization’s intentions. However, all of this could have been avoided if Komen had assumed an active voice and had engaged with their fans on social media platforms.

After analyzing these three brand blunders, we can already detect what brands did wrong and how they could have improved their crisis communications plan to include a social media presence. Now, let’s review some effective ways to improve social CRM and provide quality, memorable customer service experiences on the web.

Tips for pleasing the social consumer:

When you see a negative comment, don’t take it personally. Companies should understand that angry consumers’ intention isn’t to deliberately hurt your reputation. Instead, they are genuinely expressing how they feel about something. You should take this unique opportunity to embrace the feedback and join the conversation.

Carefully and quickly plan your response. The worst thing you could do is wait to respond or ignore the comment altogether. Don’t pull a Susan G. Komen. Instead, prove to your social media audiences that you’re taking their opinions into consideration and want to hear them out. You actually care about what they think. With that being said, always respond in a positive manner, following the mantra, “the customer is always right.”

Continue the conversation offline. After you respond to the customer’s comment publicly, consider taking the conversation one step further by contacting them through phone or email. The customer will appreciate that you value his/her opinion and want to correct the mistake.

Understand that your customers are the reason your brand exists. Simply put, your consumers will be your biggest advocates and critics. By taking feedback into serious consideration, you will not only please your social customers, but you will also be able to build relationships with your consumers.

No one likes a negative Nancy. But the reality is that social consumers are here to stay. Today, it’s human nature for social media users to share how they feel about a certain product, restaurant, hotel, etc. on a social media platform or review site. So, instead of cringing at every negative consumer comment, change your mindset. Actively embrace consumer feedback and use it as an opportunity to improve relationships with consumers. Keep your head up and go get ‘em!

The overarching theme among all of these creative customer loyalty programs seems to be “easiness.” Keeping track of a plastic rewards card isn’t exactly easy to do, which is why many places have taken their rewards programs online. Being able to track consumer loyalty via social media and the Internet is a blessing for small and large business owners alike. If you’re a fan of buying six to get one free but are sick of waiting around for stamps, then check out all of these creative customer loyalty programs to see what the future has in store.

#1 Risque Customer Loyalty Programs Smints Breath Mints Rewards Customers with Naughty Toys

#2 Upside Down Retail Displays The Sprize Loyalty Program at the Gap Turns Shopping on Its Head (VIDEO)

#3Couch Potato Loyalty Programs Viggle Rewards You for ‘Checking in’ to TV Shows

#4Online Loyalty Program TrackersPerkler Organizes Rewards, Points and Frequent Flier Miles (VIDEO)
chek it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13IE7P9m9zk&feature=player_embedded

#5 Social Media Loyalty ProgramsThe Starwood Hotels Foursquare Partnerships Help You Earn Points

#6 Retailer Loyalty Apps The Key Ring Rewards Card App Will Store Your Barcoded Cards
Check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2b6qEH0tzQ&feature=player_embedded

#7 Digital Loyalty Points Aneace Haddad Creates Loyalty Program via Taggo for Consumers

#8 Customer Loyalty Cubes Tagtile Encourages Returning Shoppers Through Points and Coupons

#9 Virtual Customer Reward Cards Perx Lets You Collect Loyalty Stamps on Your Smartphone

#10 Social Media Shopping Badges Foursquare Partners With Safeway and Pepsi for Foursquare Rewards

Here are some character-boosting tips:

Assign your brand human traits – Sit down with a pen and paper (I know, old school) and give your brand or product human traits. Is your brand fun? Sophisticated? Rebellious? Think of 5 or more human characteristics that define your brand and infuse those into your content across the board.

Make it personal – Post a picture of your staff, tell me a secret or at the very least throw out an employee fun fact. Consumers love to put a face with the name/company. Throwing a little personal information into the mix will make your brand relatable. Don’t let all your content or social media posts revolve around product and business. Let loose! Take down some walls! Show us what it looks like behind the scenes of your business. This will auto-infuse spunk into your brand.

Make us laugh – There’s no getting around it, comedy is the key to bringing personality to the digital realm. Bringing a funny voice to your content can make your brand an internet sensation. Fear not, if you’re not funny there is a ton of content out there that you can reconstitute for your audience. Make sure it relates to your brand and/or services and you’ll be raking in the fans.

Infusing personality into your brand might take a little thinking and push you out of your content-creating-comfort-zone but it will really help define your brand and engage your audience. Good luck!

Many business owners think once their site is up and running they can breathe a sigh of relief and move on to the next project. This can lead to a website (and possibly a business) dying a slow and painful death. Without proper support and upkeep consumers won’t be interested in viewing a website much less returning. So even if you build it, they might not come.

Making sure the content on your site is up-to-date, fresh, optimized and promoted will always yield better results than if you let it float all alone in cyberspace. There are many ways to keep a website fresh and alive. Here are a few things to do:

Make sure content is up-to-date and compelling
Whether you are a small business or large ecommerce site, there is nothing more frustrating to a consumer/client than information that is incorrect or out-of-date. It can lead a viewer to wonder if your business is still up and running and will definitely make them think you don’t care. Make frequent sweeps of your site making sure the information is correct and topical.

Adding fresh content to a website on a regular basis has many added benefits. An easy way to do this is to add a blog or current events page to the site. This gives you a way to let consumers know what is happening in your industry or business while pumping life into the site. Think about updating the blog or current events page once a week. Consider topics that would be interesting to your audience including; tip and tools, case studies, event recaps or how-to articles.

Optimize your site
Before launching, your site should be structurally optimized but the work does not end here. SEO trends and techniques are constantly changing. Be sure you are up-to-date with current SEO trends and keyword optimized content is added to your site on a regular basis. Reaching out to other sites, companies and blogs to obtain backlinks is a key component to optimizing your site. If you feel like your optimization efforts are not aligned, think about contacting an expert. Yep, that was a shameless plug.

Interact in the Social Web
With the adoption of social sites businesses can reach consumers on a more intimate level. Sites like Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin have pushed back the curtain between business and consumer and now you can communicate directly with your customers. Engage and drive them back to your website which should be the hub for all things new exciting at your place of business. Facebook’s new tool Facebook Deals is an easy and free way to drive consumers through your doors.

Think outside the site
Once your site is up and running think about other ways in which your business can gain exposure. Putting together a buzz-worthy campaign is a great way to create content for your site, obtain backlinks and gain outside coverage.

Social responsibility campaigns are one feel-good way to go about this. Let’s face it, using your skills or business to help the environment, a non-profit or cause just plain feels good. It can also be used to gain media coverage and generate buzz. For more information on how you can create a social responsibility campaign check out Generation Change. A movement that encourage businesses to get involved in the community.

Don’t forget about good-old-fashioned media outreach and public relations. A PR coordinators role has slightly changed as a result of the emergence of social media, however you should never discount the impact that a solid hit in Tech Crunch or Mashable can have for your business.

A website is a great tool to promote business and gain customers but it takes work and support. With a little regular TLC your site can be a highly functioning marketing force. So the website is done, pat yourself on the back and get to work already!